OB-GYN-Listers:  The Ina May Gaskin thread is a doozy!  Midwife Kathi Wilson
see below... Art Fougner, MD, thanks for the GREAT quote about Swedish,
German and Australian women trying to force men to sit to pee!  See the very
end of this post...

ATTENTION U.S. NAVY via Cong. Roscoe G. Bartlett:

If you are going to install squatting-type toilets on U.S. Navy ships...

A UNIFORM change will be necessary...  Michele J. Morris reviewed Swiss
alpinist Dodé Kunz's Wild Rose P-System for BACKPACKER magazine and
reported: "the stem-to-stern opening...provides ample room for whatever
you're moved to do." It appears that Kunz's P-System - a "stem-to-stern"
zipper - would function as both a Pee and Poop system if installed in all
sailors' uniforms...
http://www.backpacker.com/article/0,2646,1613,00.html

The U.S. Public Health Service would want the U.S. Navy to install
squatting-type toilets...

"Those with greater flexibility may have a lower risk of future back
injury...Increasing public awareness...may help to encourage the pursuit of
activities that will promote...flexibility."
[Harrell JA, Artz LM, Files A, Baker D (eds.). Healthy people 2000: National
health promotion and disease prevention objectives. DHHS Pub. No.
(PHS)91-50212, 1991:100]

WILL the U.S. Navy encourage the pursuit of SQUATTING - a fundamental human
activity of daily living that promotes flexibility?

Will the U.S. Navy - via the installation of squatting-type toilets - help
STOP The Great Squat Robbery - the bizarre Western practice of robbing
children of a fundamental human rest posture?

First a brief digression - my priority...

In 1989, the Great Squat Robbery was related to my PRIORITY concern - the
bizarre U.S. Navy medical practice of denying babies up to 30% of pelvic
outlet area at birth...

The Great Squat Robbery was mentioned (in so many words) in Gardosi et al.'s
1989 Lancet article on "squatting" births - a "randomised trial of
squatting" - where nobody squatted!

Will the U.S. Navy install squatting-type BIRTHS?

Stated more usefully (and forcefully)...

Will U.S. Navy hospitals/MDs abandon routine senseless fetal skull squashing
and associated senseless mass vagina slashing? (The euphemisms for these
bizarre medical practices are "routine episotomy" and "dorsal" and
"semisitting" deliveries.)

Ending these bizarre American MD practices is my priority.

Helping mothers and babies should be EVERYONE'S priority.

Helping mothers and babies should be a *U.S. Navy* priority.  (The Pope
should help too.  See "Pope ignores Gastaldo," URL below.)

END brief digression...though I'll return to it below since as a consequence
of MD lying, mothers and babies are suffering en masse and sometimes
dying...some at U.S. Navy hospitals...

Back to squatting-type toilets...

How about it - *WILL* the U.S. Navy encourage the pursuit of a SIMPLE human
activity of daily living that promotes flexibility?

Will the U.S. Navy install squatting-type toilets?

Most Westerners are not even aware that they've lost flexibility - their
innate squatting ability.

The late Femmy DeLyser, RN wrote in 1989:

"Lack of flexibility is so common we don't even see it as such.  Compare
yourself for a moment with women of cultures where it is customary to sit in
a squatting position for such work as weaving or painting as well as during
meals and while engaged in conversation." [Femmy DeLyser, R.N., author of
Jane Fonda's New Pregnancy Workout and Total Birth Program New York: Simon
and Schuster, 1989:52]

Since most Westerners are not aware that they've lost their innate squatting
ability....

They're of course not aware that they've lost the ability to comfortably use
squatting-type toilets...

Most Westerners don't know that squatting-type toilets even exist!

Since the U.S. Navy (see below) is looking for toilets that satisfy sanitary
requirements...the U.S. Navy will be interested to know that squatting-type
toilets "better satisfy sanitary requirements" - or so said inhabitants of a
squatting culture...

"A field survey on the use of public toilets in Taipei reveals that almost
half of the subjects take a non-sitting [squatting? - TDG] posture while
using the sitting-type public toilets and 86% of the subjects agreed that
the squatting-type public toilets better satisfy sanitary requirements. An
experiment was conducted to determine relevant anthropometric data for a
redesign of squatting-type toilets. One of the variables studied was the
effect of the footstep slope on squatting comfort...The 15 degrees slope was
found to be preferred..."
[Cai D, You M Appl Ergon 1998 Apr;29(2):147-53]
http://www.college-talk.com/talk/N-Dirs/N-1336/2.shtml

NOTE:  Most humans on the planet - including most Western children - can
squat...

Why NOT have squatting-type toilets aboard U.S. Navy ships?

Why not have BOTH types of toilets - squatting and sitting - aboard U.S.
Navy ships?

I ask because, as alluded to above, the U.S. Navy is replacing all aircraft
carrier urinals with toilets
anyway...and many of the youngest sailors may not have been robbed of their
innate squatting ability - yet, i.e., many U.S. Navy sailors still may be
able
to squat comfortably.

Even if many sailors can't squat - the U.S. Navy could make squatting-type
toilets out of its existing toilets using Wal Bowles' invention discussed
below.  Chair-dwelling Westerners - most of whom fall over backwards when
they try to flat-footed squat - just need a greater footstep slope - and Wal
Bowles' invention provides a greater footstep slope...  More on Wal Bowles'
invention below...

If action were taken now, for the first time in history, sailors aboard U.S.
Navy ships - males and females - could SQUAT to pee and poop...

Of course, if the U.S. Navy makes squatting-type toilets available, admirals
will have to look into UNIFORMS which allow sailors to squat to pee and
poop...

Which brings me back to Swiss alpinist Dodé Kunz's Wild Roses "long,
front-to-back P-System zipper - discrete, comfortable, and convenient."
http://www.wrgear.com

Ms. Kunz's P-System zipper could be sewn into both women's and men's
military uniforms.

As noted above, Michele J. Morris reviewed Swiss alpinist Dodé Kunz's Wild
Rose P-System for BACKPACKER magazine and reported: "the stem-to-stern
opening...provides ample room for whatever you're moved to do" - i.e., it
appears that Kunz's P-System would function as both a Pee and Poop system if
installed in all sailors' uniforms...
http://www.backpacker.com/article/0,2646,1613,00.html

Of course, the new U.S. Navy uniforms will have to be roomy (or stretchy) -
so sailors can comfortably squat while on watch...

Why should sailors be allowed to squat while on watch?

I say again, the U.S. Public Health Service wants the U.S. Navy (and the
rest of us) to "encourage the pursuit of
activities that will promote...flexibility."
[Harrell JA, Artz LM, Files A, Baker D (eds.). Healthy people 2000: National
health promotion and disease prevention objectives. DHHS Pub. No.
(PHS)91-50212, 1991:100]

More about this important consideration below...

Onward...

Regarding women standing to pee...

Regarding women standing to have peeing contests (!)...

Denise Decker, RN notes that a prominent toilet manufacturer now makes a
standing urinal for use by women and men...
http://www.restrooms.org/sanistand2.gif

Nurse Decker says that - with practice - most women can stand to pee at
conventional men's urinals - but she recommends the TravelMate...

"70% of women were able to use the device-free method...[but the
TravelMate]...makes peeing through the fly of your jeans a lot easier."
http://www.restrooms.org/device-free.html

Regarding women having peeing contests (literally)...

Nurse Decker quotes a woman named Janice...

"My friends Judy and Karen will sometimes stand at the urinal and see who
can get the furthest arc. It works best when we are all drunk!"
http://www.restrooms.org/device-free.html

It was on Nurse Decker's web page that I first read of the Washington Times
story about the above mentioned U.S. Navy plan to replace urinals with
toilets...

Reportedly, Vice Admiral John B. Nathman said in a Sept. 11 memo that
the goal of replacing urinals with toilets on all US navy aircraft carriers
is to "make
all sanitary spaces gender-neutral..."
http://www.restrooms.org/device-free.html

(Searching the Washington Times archive for "urinals" yielded a summary of
the article cited by Nurse Decker http://www.washtimes.com/archives.htm.
Paying $1.95 - yielded the entire source article:   Scarborough R. Sloppy
sailors threaten Navy's urinals: 'gender neutral water closets'
prescribed for all the aircraft carriers in fleet. The Washington Times.
(Sep13)2000:A1.)

Nurse Decker suggests that,

"Perhaps the military should simply consider training female recruits to
stand to pee..."

She says, "[W]omen soldiers would be less vulnerable during combat if
they knew there was an alternative to squatting..."
http://www.restrooms.org/device-free.html

WHOA!

Squatting is NOT an alternative in "sanitary spaces" on U.S. Navy ships -
UNLESS one squats on the toilet seat - and (incidentally) this is apparently
what many people from squatting cultures do when confronted with a Western
throne toilet (see Cai and You's 1998 article quoted above).

Cai and You's 1998 comment that people thought the squatting-type toilet was
"better for sanitary reasons" MIGHT have had to do with the fact that, with
a squatting-type toilet, one's backside does not have to contact a toilet
seat...

Then again, note the sanitary reason for squatting-type toilets alluded to
by Nurse Decker when she wrote to Congressman Roscoe G. Bartlett of Maryland
(who reportedly is investigating the U.S. Navy's urinal-replacement
program).

Wrote Nurse Decker to Cong. Bartlett:

"...[S]ince the distance the urine stream travels to a toilet is greater
than the distance traveled to a urinal, it's easy to see that the sanitary
condition of the restroom will become worse, not better. Especially on a
swaying ship."
http://www.restrooms.org/Forum1.html

With squatting-type toilets, the urine stream doesn't go far at all!

Less splash!  Less spray!

Nurse Decker makes reference to "the historical acceptance of women sitting
to pee"...

WHAT?!

What about the historical acceptance of men and women sitting to POOP?

Why did we ever move away from men and women SQUATTING to poop?

Why did we ever move away from men and women squatting to REST?

Western children are routinely ROBBED of an all-terrain standing rest
posture!

Why *are* public health officials - eg. J. Jarrett Clinton (see below) -
ignoring this mass loss of flexibility/functionality?

One of the world's most famous MD physiologists indicates that chairs cause
chronic imminent gluteal tissue death and that chair-dwellers "unconsciously
shift" in an attempt to avoid gluteal tissue death...

Arthur Guyton, MD wrote in 1986:

"Even such simple activities as sitting for a long time...can cause tissue
destruction...Cessation of blood
flow to the skin...usually...cause[s] pain...[within]...20 to 30 minutes"
(p. 594)...when the skin becomes painful as a result of the ischemia, the
person shifts weight unconsciously" (p. 592). [Guyton AC. Textbook of
Medical Physiology. 7th ed. Phil: W.B. Saunders 1986]

Squatters don't shift nearly as much as chair-dwellers - or so I've been
told.  Indeed, one person told me that squatters can be completely
motionless for hours!

Why is the West robbing its children of this fundamental human all-terrain
rest posture?!

I asked the Pope - the world's most prominent chair-dweller - about this -
and the Pope (the Holy See = Holy Chair) ignored me...

His Holiness not only goes by the name "Holy Chair" - he names his various
world headquarters - Cathedrals - after the chairs (cathedra) they house!

See The Pope ignores Gastaldo/Dorko disparages Kuhn/Dorko's Dynamite
(again).
http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=527504276

The Pope also runs a large number of hospitals - and like U.S. Navy
hospitals - the Pope's hospitals will be abandoning routine senseless fetal
skull squashing and associated senseless mass vagina slashing (dorsal and
semisitting deliveries) - or rather - ending these bizarre American MD
practices is my priority.  See below.

I applaud Vice Admiral John B. Nathman's move to replace urinals with
toilets to make "sanitary
spaces" aboard U.S. Navy ships "gender neutral"...

I think the Vice Admiral should look into SQUATTING toilets for his
"sanitary spaces." (Again:  "[T]he squatting-type public toilets better
satisfy sanitary requirements."  See Cai et al. 1998 quoted above.)

Of course, as indicated above, sailors should be allowed to squat on watch,
too...

Anyone who has literally stood a four-hour watch aboard a navy ship knows
that - for people with back pain - the toll on the low back can be
horrendous. (Perhaps standing doesn't
cause back pain - but it certainly exacerbates it for many people - just
like prolonged sitting exacerbates back pain for many people - which is one
reason UC Berkeley Prof. Galen Cranz has recommended abandoning the chair.
See below.)

The U.S. pays BILLIONS per year to treat back pain - and billions more (per
MONTH) to warehouse the elderly - in part because they've lost mobility...

I call this loss of mobility The Great Squat Robbery.

As indicated above - there is a related OBSTETRIC EMERGENCY - fetal skull
squashing...

Also indicated above - fetal skull squashing is ROUTINE in dorsal and
semisitting deliveries!

Even worse, American MDs are LYING to cover-up - even as they indirectly
admit they are KILLING some babies (with fetal skull squashing/dorsal and
semisitting deliveries)...

British obstetrician Jason Gardosi, MD indirectly related the Great Squat
Robbery to fetal skull squashing in his 1989 Lancet "randomised controlled
trial of squatting" - where nobody squatted.

Gardosi notes that the same biomechanics that cause fetal skull squashing in
semisitting and dorsal deliveries can cause shoulder dystocia.  He states
that - via these grisly biomechanics - MD-obstetricians are causing shoulder
dystocia the sometimes fatal birth complication that MD-obstetricians fear
most!

See MDs fear this/OBs on shoulder dystocia.
http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=329325910

Incredibly, RNs are not only going along with the grisly gag - they are
making it worse!

See CNMwifery Prof. Hensley's ad hominem
http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=669520275

See also For birth injury attorneys...
http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=669067626

Canadian midwife Kathi Wilson, RM may be keeping the outlet narrowed up to
30% when the shoulders appear to be stuck...

She wrote on Sept. 30, 2000:

"My first 'maneuver', if you will, is to use *upward* traction to see if the
posterior shoulder will release first..."
http://forums.obgyn.net/ob-gyn-l/OBGYNL.0009/1170.html

("Upward" traction implies that the woman is still on her back.)

Ms. Wilson indicates further that fetal skull squashing is routine in some
Canadian hospitals, as in,

"I think we create a lot of 'sticky' shoulders in the hospital situation (at
least where I work) when women have epidurals and then get 'jack-knifed'
into position in the fancy damned birthing beds, w/ their legs in calf
supports and their backs elevated."
http://forums.obgyn.net/ob-gyn-l/OBGYNL.0009/1170.html

Ms. Wilson's behavior is remarkable because I informed her of the grisly
biomechanics of dorsal and semisitting delivery a long time ago...and she
made a joke...as obstetricians scoffed at what I was saying...
http://forums.obgyn.net/ob-gyn-l/OBGYNL.9812/0798.html
http://forums.obgyn.net/ob-gyn-l/OBGYNL.9812/0858.html

Why did Ms. Wilson ignore me and apparently CONTINUE to squash fetal skulls
and risk trapping fetal shoulders?

Why did OBSTETRICIANS respond with pure ad hominem?

(My thanks to the chiropractic student who publicly observed this fact.
http://forums.obgyn.net/ob-gyn-l/OBGYNL.9802/1020.html)

(Ron Helm, MD's "DC stands for dog catcher" ad hominem was quite humorous
http://forums.obgyn.net/ob-gyn-l/OBGYNL.9707/0168.html - but it seemed quite
inappropriate considering the obvious MD lies and obvious MD-inflicted mass
human suffering I was pointing out...)

NO one should "traction" a baby - pull on a skull - upward or downward -
with the birth canal closed up to 30%!

Yet forceps are applied to fetal skulls with birth canals closed - in about
4% of vaginal births!!!

OBSTETRIC EMERGENCY!

I was censored by OB/GYN-Listowner Geffrey Klein, MD after I pointed out
that British obstetrician Malcolm Griffiths, MD had his biomechanics exactly
backwards...
http://forums.obgyn.net/forums/ob-gyn-l/OBGYNL.9707/0128.html
http://forums.obgyn.net/forums/ob-gyn-l/OBGYNL.9707/0153.html

Dr. Griffiths responded with pure ad hominem...

"I think it's clear that Jason [Gardosi] & I consider this guy a malicious
nutcase."
http://forums.obgyn.net/ob-gyn-l/OBGYNL.9707/0159.html

I have NO malice!  I just want the mass suffering of mothers and babies to
finally end!

Dr. Gardosi AGREES with me on the grisly biomechanics!

Again, see MDs fear this/OBs on shoulder dystocia.
http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=329325910

I have called upon DCs and PTs (and RNs and midwives and anyone else) to
help
me adjust - without touching the spine - via education...

See...

Will Dutch military PTs help mothers and babies?
http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=668868252

DCs doing hospital rotations/TCC's Guy Huff, DC to help mothers and babies?
http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=669290124

American medicine is not just committing mass PHYSICAL child abuse!

There is also the matter of mass IMMUNOLOGIC child abuse...

See...

Breastfeeding: Dear ACSH (Whelan) and NRDC (Adams)
http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=670322951

AAP media violence by omission/Will La Leche Rebecca say it right up front?
Breastfeeding women are IMMUNIZERS
http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=674076455

I include these last two URLs to inform readers that - incredible as the
MD-lying about fetal skull squashing may seem - American MDs are lying (by
omission) thereby denying massive numbers of babies massive numbers of free
daily immunizations.

MDs lying by omission in regard to this mass IMMUNOLOGIC child abuse is the
molecular
equivalent of MDs and DCs and PTs looking the other way as Western culture
robs children of their innate squatting ability.

As noted above, the Pope and the U.S. Navy run a lot of hospitals and both
could make changes overnite.

I am sure that 100% of babies would want the Pope and the U.S. Navy to do
so...

Back to squatting aboard Navy ships...

Of course, while "standing" their watches - if at all possible U.S. Navy
sailors who are still *able* to squat should be *encouraged* to squat...

WHY let Americans lose this fundamental human range of motion?  More on this
below...

As an officer aboard the USS LANG some years ago, it occurred to me that
most inport quarterdeck watches could be EASILY converted to squatting
watches.

NOTE:  If there is a "military bearing" "need" for sailors to be at
standing height while standing watches - then the U.S. Navy can provide
squatting watch platforms.  Those sailors who CAN'T squat (because their
culture has robbed them) - should be allowed to sit in chairs on the
squatting watch platform...kind of like how the Captain is allowed to
sit/sleep in a chair on the bridge while the ship is underway. (No I am not
saying that sailors should be allowed to sleep on watch!)

Certainly there is NO reason for sailors to be *standing* at 4
am (when no one is watching for "military bearing" anyway)...

There is simply NO NEED for the "military bearing" called prolonged forced
standing - anymore than there is a need for forced chair-dwelling.

Both of these forced behaviors - forced standing and forced chair-dwelling -
rob humans of a fundamental range of motion - as Americans pay billions of
dollars per MONTH to warehouse the
elderly - in part because of loss of range of motion - loss of mobility...

As alluded to above, in addition to senseless loss of mobility, there is the
possibility that
forcing sailors to stand (and sit in chairs) for prolonged periods is
contributing to America's low back pain epidemic (see Healthy People 2000,
quoted below).

Should the U.S. Navy risk contributing to America's low back pain epidemic?

Getting back to Cai and You [1998]...

"One of the variables studied was the effect of the footstep slope on
squatting comfort...The 15 degrees slope was found to be preferred..."
[Cai D, You M Appl Ergon 1998 Apr;29(2):147-53]

Offering "footstep slope" is one way to convert throne toilets into
squatting-type toilets...

As alluded to above, an Australian, Wal Bowles, used to (and may still) sell
a device which fits
around existing throne toilets and converts them into squatting-type
toilets.

Just now I found Wal Bowles mentioned in the Acknowledgements section of an
interesting 1996 article about squatting possibly preventing hemorrhoids.

The article was written by Dimmer, Martin, Reeves and Sullivan of  the
University of Wollongong...

According to the abstract...

"One proposed way to prevent and cure haemorrhoids is to squat for
defaecation. The evidence for this approach is ambiguous. Even if further
studies showed advantages for squatting, existing social habits and toilet
technology would be significant barriers to taking it up. This example
illustrates the emphasis of medical research on treatments rather than
prevention and the impact of social factors on medical priorities."
--Christine Dimmer, Brian Martin, Noeline Reeves and Frances Sullivan
Squatting for the Prevention of Haemorrhoids?
Department of Science and Technology Studies
University of Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia
Originally published in Townsend Letter for Doctors & Patients, Issue No.
159, October 1996, pp. 66-70,
http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/96tldp.html

Hopefully Profs. Brian Martin and Frances Sullivan know how to contact Mr.
Bowles and will do so.

I'm thinking the U.S. Navy may be contacting Mr. Bowles in hopes of being
able to
offer U.S. sailors the squatting-type toilet option - before any
squatting-type toilets
are installed.

(Mr. Bowles may still be selling the squatting conversion kit he invented.)

BTW, I found out about Mr. Bowles years ago - after Brazilian obstetrician
Moyses Paciornik, MD introduced me (by mail) to Australian physiotherapist
Shirley Owen, PT.

Ms. Owen uses the research of BA Sikirov, MD (discussed by Dimmer et al.,
URL
above) in her pelvic floor rehabilitation clinic.

In 1944 psychiatrist Strecker saw possible PSYCHIATRIC advantages to

In 198_, My Lai massacre psychiatrist M. Scott Peck suggested that our
peculiar cultural practice of training toilets, if not done properly, can
cause psychiatric problems:

"Obsessive-compulsive neuroses have their origins in early childhood,
beginning almost always in a less than ideal toilet-training situation."
[Peck MS. People of the Lie 198_:36]

There is also evidence that our inveterate chair-sitting is actually
altering our bone structure and causing osteoarthritis:

"Professor DR Gunn (Singapore) said that in Chinese and Malays primary
osteoarthritis of the hip was rare, and congenital dislocation of the hip
was not found.  Examination of the trabeculae in the upper end of the femora
of these races showed that the trabecular arrangement was like that of a
child rather than that of a [Western] adult.  Postmortem examination of
twenty subjects over the age of fifty showed no evidence of osteoarthritis
of the hip.  Among these races squatting was a very common position assumed
frequently in everyday life.  This position ensured that nearly every part
of the femoral head was at one time or another covered by the articular
surface of the acetabulum.  This was not the case in Western races, and it
was in the uncovereed areas that osteoarthritis started.  Mr. KI Nissen
(London) agreed that primary osteoarthritis resulted from lack of use of
articular cartilage rather than from over use." [Excerpts from an annual
meeting of the British Orthopedic Association. J Bone Joint Surg
1964;46B(1):156]

Canadian orthopedic surgeon W. Harry Fahrni notes that when he set up an
orthopedic department in a 2200 bed university hospital in a squatting
culture (Jakarta, Indonesia), he found that the orthopedists there didn't
know degenerative osteoarthritis of the hip existed. [Personal
communication, 1992]

Fahrni's remarks accord well with Hoaglund et al.'s finding that
hip osteoarthritis was rare in another squatting culture. [Hoaglund FT, Yau
ACMC, Wong WL. Osteoarthritis of the hip and other joints in Southern
Chinese. J Bone Joint Surg 1973;55A(3):545-57]

As I noted in a 1997 post to e-mail lists for PTs and DCs...

In 1953, the hip was called "the commonest clinical site of severe
osteoarthritis" [Harrison et al. J Bone Joint Surg 1953;35B(4):598-626] -
and in 1974, orthopedic surgeon DR Gunn noted, in Southeast Asia, "the
virtually complete absence of primary degenerative arthritis of the
hip." [Gunn DR Don't sit: Squat! Clin Orth Rel Res 1974(103):104-5. Taken
from a larger article by Gunn in the Indian Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery]
http://otpt.ups.edu/listservs/PTHER/Chair-dwelling.html
http://otpt.ups.edu/listservs/PTHER/Chairs-HipOsteoarthritis.html

The Paciorniks (Moyses and Claudio - a father-son obstetrician team) were
not aware of Fahrni's work when they converted their modern obstetric
practice to allow thousands of women to squat for brief periods during labor
after the manner of forest midwives.

Independently, the Paciorniks, too, expressed concern that our Western
chair-dwelling culture robs children of the ability to rest for prolonged
periods in the squatting position.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  The Great Squat Robbery starts "15 minutes at a time"...

According to Newsweek,

"Educators say that many five-year olds really can't handle a highly
academic program. They're still learning how to sit still for more than
15 minutes at a time." [Kantrowitz B, Wingert P. The big grind in
kindergarten. Newsweek (Aug10)1987. From Gastaldo's peer review of the
AHCPR-sponsored Low Back Guideline draft.]

On receiving Gastaldo TD, Social Squatting [1988, unpublished] - my article
about how
Canadian orthopedic surgeon Fahrni was experimenting with "chairless"
schools in Canada - the Paciorniks (obstetricians) requested the assistance
of then-Curitiba Mayor Jaime Lerner (now Governor of Paraná)...

Together, then-Mayor Lerner and the Drs. Paciornik persuaded Brazilian
school authorities
to implement 30 "chairless" schools. (Professor Moysés Paciornik, M.D., Rua
Lourenço Pinto 83, CEP 80010, Curitiba, PR, BRAZIL, 011-55-41-232-3232.)

Wrote Fahrni of his Canadian experiment,

"We need not undertake any training of our children...One can simply avoid
discouraging floor sitting [or squatting] at the time when they are learning
to use a chair."  [Fahrni. Orth Clin N Am 1975]

Fahrni convinced the Vancouver B.C. school board to first make sitting in
chairs optional in experimental classrooms for 5-12 year-olds.

Then, when it became obvious that children preferred cross-legged sitting
and
squatting, the chairs were removed altogether.  Teachers reported that this
made teaching easier.

Fahrni has also recommended ergonomically sound floor-sitting work stations
for older children and adults. [Fahrni WH. Conservative treatment of lumbar
disc degeneration: our primary responsibility. Orth Clin N Am 1975;6(1):100.
WH Fahrni, M.D., Suite. 205, 1311 Beach Ave., Vancouver B.C. V6E 1V6
CANADA.]

When the U.S. Public Health Service convened experts to compose a low back
guideline, both Dr. Fahrni and I were asked to be peer reviewers...

Both of our peer reviews were ignored...

In my April 26, 1993 peer review (of the U.S. Public Health Service's AHCPR
Low Back Guideline draft), I embellished upon Dr. Fahrni's work station idea
and suggested
counterweighted work surfaces that could be used by all...raising and
lowering the surface as needed...to stand, sit in a chair, squat, or sit
cross-legged...

A professor in UC Berkeley's School of Architecture has been thinking
similar thoughts...

See Profs. Cranz and Sahrmann/PTs, DCs, MDs ignore elusive-obvious
http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=653353447

Here are pertinent excerpts from my just mentioned April 26,
1993 peer review of the AHCPR Low Back Guideline draft...

Making squatting an activity of daily living would certainly increase
"flexibility," a distinct concern of the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services, Public Health Service.  Quoting from the PHS publication  Healthy
People 2000:

"Flexibility describes the range of motion in a joint or sequence of joints.
Those with greater flexibility may have a lower risk of future back
injury...Joint movement through the full range of motion helps to improve
and maintain flexibility...

"...The performance of routine daily activities is particularly important to
maintaining functional independence and social integration in older adults.
Increasing public awareness of all of these potential benefits may help to
encourage the pursuit of activities that will promote...flexibility."
[Harrell JA, Artz LM, Files A, Baker D (eds.). Healthy people 2000: National
health promotion and disease prevention objectives. DHHS Pub. No.
(PHS)91-50212, 1991:100]

Unfortunately, Healthy People 2000 does not mention America's loss of a
fundamental human rest posture.  Incidentally,  one of the more prominent
contributors to Healthy People 2000, noted on p. 645 of that text, was AHCPR
Administrator J. Jarrett Clinton.

.......

Nachemson vs. billions of Africans, Arabs and Asians

I respectfully suggest that the famous intradiscal pressure measurements of
distinguished Panel consultant Alf Nachemson do not constitute a "scientific
foundation" (p. 156, line 26) for the Panel's claim that "intradiscal
pressure measurements can also apply to sitting recommendations." (p. 157,
line  16)

For example, how should Nachemson's intradiscal pressure measurements be
applied to the majority of the world's humans, most of whom can rest
comfortably for hours in the flat-footed squatting position?  Would the
Panel advise that our children - and billions of rural Arabs, Asians and
Africans - should stop squatting because squatting, a flexed posture,
increases intradiscal pressure (probably more than sitting) and therefore,
according to Panel speculation, increases "overall spine stress" (p. 157,
line 2) and "aggravates the back?" (p. 157, line 14).

In this regard, I know of no evidence that squatting cultures suffer more
back pain than chair-dwelling cultures, and much evidence that
chair-dwelling cultures suffer  massive squatting activity intolerance.
Indeed, according to the Panel (noted above), "after a few weeks of limiting
symptoms, few patients ever again tolerate extreme activities and
positions..." (p. 168, line 2)

At the very least, the Panel's speculation that intradiscal pressure can
apply to sitting recommendations should be "explicitly stated as Panel
opinion" (p. 7, line 7) and balanced with Adams and Hutton's finding that
the flexed lumbar posture "improves the transport of metabolites in the
intervertebral discs, reduces the stresses on the apophyseal joints and on
the posterior  half of the anulus fibrosus, and gives the spine a high
compressive strength." [Adams MA and Hutton WC. The effect of posture on the
lumbar spine. J Bone Joint Surg 1985;67B(4):625-9.  Cited in W hite AA,
Panjabi MM. Clinical Biomechanics of the Spine 1990]

The first epsisode of low back pain and the "multiple recurrent episodes
within the next few years...less severe with gradually decreasing frequency"
(p. 163, line 6), may represent the beginning of the last stage in the loss
of an "extreme activity and position" (p. 168, line 12) called flat-footed
squatting.

In this regard, the Panel's statement of scope ("any back-related symptoms
producing activity intolerance" (p. 6, line 5), contains the assumption that
"even without detecting or defining any specific reason" (p. 168, line 12),
back-related symptoms produce activity intolerance - and not the other way
around.  It may be that this culture's squatting activity intolerance is
producing chair-dwelling workers who can't comfortably rest in the squatting
position and who perhaps eventually suffer back pain as a result...

..........

Should chairdwellers be made aware of the culture-wide loss of a fundamental
human range of motion?  And once made aware of the loss, will chairdwellers
continue to pay $2600 per month to house and exercise old chairdwellers -
even as they create new chairdwellers?  Certainly we should pay for senior
chairdwellers and others who need this care (and certainly no one -
especially not the elderly - should ever be forced to squat).  But allowing
children to maintain "native" postures into adulthood is a free experiment -
one that might ultimately yield more active children, adults and seniors -
and diminish a host of health problems described in this letter.  My guess
(and Dr. Fahrni's and Dr. Paciornik's and Dr. Sikirov's is that squatting
retirees will have gone through life with less back pain, fewer hemorrhoids
and easier labors - and will go much longer than their chairdwelling
counterparts before needing $2600 per month nursing home assistance in
walking and exercising their limbs."

Excerpt above taken from Nachemson v. Billions of Africans, Arabs and Asians
http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=634625183

Note regarding my priority - installing squatting-type births to end routine
senseless fetal skull squashing and associated mass vagina slashing...

On every page of my 31 page April 26, 1993  peer review of the AHCPR
Guideline Draft was a header which stated in bold type:  Attn:  J. Jarrett
Clinton:  The fact that obstetricians routinely deny fetuses up to 30% of
pelvic outlet area has now, quoting your letter to me of July 14, 1992,
"emanated from research or activities which AHCPR has funded..." Please
disseminate this information to women IMMEDIATELY.

Dr. J. Jarrett Clinton failed to respond to the repetitive notes in my 1993
peer review and ultimately left AHCPR before publication of the Low Back
Guideline.  Later, Congress cut AHCPR funding to the bone.

Dr. Clinton told me in 1992 that he simply couldn't use AHCPR funds to tell
American women that obstetricians are jamming tailbones into fetal skulls.
(This was a bald lie.  I wrote in my April 26, 1993 peer review, "AHCPR
administrator Clinton can now, and could have in April 1992, accepted my
'voluntary and uncompensated services.' [42 U.S.C.A. 299c4(g)]")

The AHCPR panel's (Bigos et al.) scope originally included consideration of
the acute back pain suffered by women during labor - but the Panel's scope
was narrowed to EXCLUDE consideration of the acute back pain suffered by
women during labor.

Squatting as an activity of daily living was totally ignored - and sitting
in chairs was promoted - as the Panel openly admitted it didn't know the
cause of low back pain.

Since the U.S. Public Health Service would want the U.S. Navy to "encourage
the pursuit of activities that will promote...flexibility..."
[Harrell JA, Artz LM, Files A, Baker D (eds.). Healthy people 2000: National
health promotion and disease prevention objectives. DHHS Pub. No.
(PHS)91-50212, 1991:100]

I do hope the U.S. Navy installs squatting-type toilets and begins letting
sailors "stand" watches - especially inport watches - while sitting or
squatting...

To increase the number of U.S. Navy sailors who can easily squat, steps need
to be taken in our
schools; so I will again e-mail Nurse Markell who is president of the
National Parent
Teachers Association (PTA)

See Will Nat'l PTA Pres. (Nurse Markell) promote breastfeeding as
immunization?
Also: AAP Pres. Dr Cook (and two other MDs) - and Ronald's "chicks"
http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=664480349

Incredibly, I have heard not one peep out of Nurse Markell after informing
her that MDs are lying (by omission) thereby denying massive numbers of
babies massive numbers of free daily immunizations...

How very ODD that Nurse Markell isn't interested in stopping rather obvious
mass IMMUNOLOGIC child abuse...not to mention rather obvious mass PHYSICAL
child abuse...

Of course, my ex(?) high school friend Stephen Graner, MD - now Honolulu's
finest emergency room physician - has not responded either...

See *RNs* causing shoulder dystocia!
http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=668907577

Nor has my long-estranged little brother Greg Gastaldo, MD - Director of
Athletic Medicine at San Diego State University responded...

See RNs fear MDs/Adjusting James Rippe, MD and his Lifestyle Medicine
http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=663273205

Since this is (in part) a navy matter, I will send this - via Greg MD - to
my long-estranged
*older* brother, US Navy Commander Edward Gastaldo, MD who may still be
working for the Marine Corps...

Hopefully, Greg MD has Edward MD's e-mail address...

Hey!  I just noticed something!

How cool!

Nurse Decker has a sound file of actor Richard Dreyfuss talking about
"crazies" (from Mr. Holland's Opus?)
(To get to the Dreyfuss sound file, go to the bottom of Nurse Decker's
"Forum" page,
http://www.restrooms.org/Forum1.html)

Nurse Decker's Dreyfuss sound file reminds me of George Bernard Shaw's
sentiment that
all progress depends on the unreasonable man...

I am a "CRAZY" "unreasonable" man...in part because I am demanding (among
other things) that MDs stop various obvious crimes - including and
especially routinely jamming sacral tips up to 4 cm into fetal skulls...

Which brings me to my "Quackbuster" Aaron Fox, PhD digression...

More than one PhD has called me "psychotic" for my trouble...

Here is a humorous photo of a PhD "quackbuster"
diagnosing me as a "flaming psychotic", see...

FOX PICTURE!!!
http://home1.gte.net/gastaldo/doc1.htm

NOTE:  "Quackbusters" may be up to no good...

"Quackbuster" Fox mysteriously stopped posting to misc.health.alternative -
on Aug 3, 2000 - the day I posted the following...

'Skeptic' Aaron 'stalks' himself/'Skeptic' Aaron WELL connected (Milbank
Memorial Fund)
http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=654150446

Urgent matter/Milbank Pres. Dr. Dan Fox...
http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=654235899

In spite of "Quackbuster" Fox's behavior, I'm looking forward to seeing him
on ABC's 20/20.

As Aaron says in his blurb about himself,

In a way, I have to thank Aaron...

While most people remained silent - as documented in the posts cited
above -"Quackbuster" Aaron offered blatant lies - pretending publicly - for
example - that I had misconstrued Gardosi's
1989 Lancet "randomised controlled trial of squatting" where nobody
squatted.

Whereas "Quackbuster" Aaron generated PLENTY of intellectually dishonest
wind for me to beat into as I made/make way to my destination...

"Quackbuster" Stephen Barrett, MD ran - and now appears to be lurking on
chiro-list - presumably so he can read my posts as I archive them there...

See Prof. Mahlon Wagner -> 'Quackbuster' Barrett?
http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=673666346

(Attention Syracuse Online:  Prof. Mahl Wagner says it was just
coincidence.)

At any rate, "Quackbusters" are failing to do their jobs - mothers and
babies be damned.

And THAT'S unreasonable - in a grisly sort of way...

Maybe German skeptics will go "down under" (to Oz) in November and persuade
CSICOP to cause MD "quackbuster" CSICOP Fellows (Barrett and Sampson) to
quit their foot-dragging...

See Will German skeptics help mothers and babies?
http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=664985138

END "Quackbuster" Aaron Fox, PhD digression...

Hey!  Maybe as a consequence of this "unreasonable" post, the US Navy will
stop fetal skull squashing in Naval Hospitals worldwide!

Maybe Navy Commander Edward Gastaldo, MD will "turn to" and make ending
fetal
skull squashing "the plan of the day" - and then CARRY OUT the plan of the
day! (They said "Carry out the plan of the day" every morning at Officer
Candidate School on
Naragansett Bay in Rhode Island as we all stood at attention - or was it at
ease.  Maybe they still say "Carry out the plan of the day" in the U.S.
Navy?)

The OBSTETRIC EMERGENCY is compelling and the U.S. Navy has the
communications capability to end it immediately...

The U.S. Navy could carry out the plan of the day OVERNITE - LONG before
each ship has squatting-type toilets...

Wouldn't *that* be something!

Hope springs eternal...

ATTENTION US Navy:

ATTENTION Pope John Paul:

OBSTETRIC EMERGENCY!  MDs experts are telling obvious lies - while other MDs
routinely jam sacral tips up to 4 cm into birth canals - as MD experts ADMIT
they are sometimes KILLING babies with this grisly biomechanical buffoonery.

Todd D. Gastaldo, lowly D.C., lowly LT(jg), "CRAZY" "unreasonable man"
8948 SW Barbur Blvd
Box 6
Portland, OR 97219
FAX (815) 366-2814
TEL (503) 640-0456
http://www.egroups.com/group/chiro-list

Postscript with some more personal stuff...

I was doing quite well in the Navy - I was a Distinguished Graduate of
Surface Warfare Officer School (SWOS)...

As an ensign, I was doing 2000% better than my predecessor - a full
lieutenant - at least that's what my department head said at one point.

I think I might have made it to full lieutenant - and beyond - perhaps even
a career in the U.S. Navy - had I not spoken up in defense of my Chief -
when he spoke up about a fellow Chief "putting out a Class A fire" (a
cigarrette) in HTFR Brown's mouth - with a hard hat.

Now smoking in unauthorized areas is can mean DEATH aboard a Navy ship...

But MAN that Hull Tech recruit's mouth looked bad!

Perhaps assault and battery - "wall-to-wall counseling" is the best form of
behavior modification?

That's NOT what the navy was teaching at Surface Warfare Officer School back
then.

An obvious assault and battery had occurred and Chief Gott - MY Chief - was
getting screwed for speaking up.  So *I* spoke
up.  BAD mistake.  It was
just me being "unreasonable" I guess.  (Navy
Chiefs are the top enlisted men - the backbone of the navy.)

After I spoke up in defense of Chief Gott - after a sudden frost in the
wardroom - and a rather solitary existence on the ship - I got honorably
discharged early - with an invitation to join the
Naval Reserves - which I did - only to find myself refusing to go out
yachting  with the rest of my Reserve unit.

Captain __________ had a VERY nice yacht - and MANY "man overboard"
drills were planned for the day...

I was minding my own business at the Reserve Center while most of the unit
was out yachting.  NO one had ever stayed behind when Capt _______ took
everyone out for a yachting "drill" - but suddenly with me staying behind -
others stayed behind.

The other officer (besides me) who stayed behind (LT Cranny?) decided that
we could all watch TV at the Reserve Center.

LT Cranny (?) being the senior man - I was only a LT(jg) - I simply left
that
"drill."

If they wanted to watch TV, why didn't they simply go yachting with Capt
_____?

Anyway, I left the Reserve Center.  When it came time several weeks later to
fill out the paperwork - to give the *reason* I left a drill - and schedule
a make-up drill for myself - LT Cranny (?) called me at my place of
employment -
the office of James Bourque, DC in Watsonville, CA.

LT Cranny (?) wanted things done a certain way.  I disagreed.  My fitness
report
was held up.  I finally complained to my Congressman (Leon Panetta).

Suddenly my fitness report appeared...

Prior to that, I had discussed the matter with the Admiral's aide - a female
officer who had been in my class at Officer Candidate School.  I later heard
that the Admiral called Captain ______ into his office on Treasure Island
and
gave him hell.

At one point, I got some BIZARRE paperwork out of the blue - telling me to
report to a Naval facility for a
psychiatric exam!

At another point, I got arrested - because a woman I had never seen -
accused me of doing something I'd never done!

Capt ________, incidentally, was said to have been a former ______ County
DA.  He knew the juicy
details of the dissolution of my marriage as a result of me
telling him why I was postponing my application for the required Top Secret
clearance:  I did not want Naval Intelligence asking my wife - we were in
the middle of acrimonious bifurcated (custody/dissolution) divorce
proceedings - if I
should have had a Top Secret clearance.

Being in the middle of custody hearings was also why I did not want to go
yachting with Capt ______ during a paid Naval Reserve drill.  I did not want
my now-ex-wife to have ANY way to hammer me - to further deny me visitation
with my children.  Had Capt ____and me ("and Gilligan, and Mary Ann, and all
the rest") been caught on his yacht - and had news that my unit went out
yachting on government time and money - I could have been hurt in court
proceedings.  Officers - even junior
officers - are supposed to know better than to do such things.  We had just
learned that an admiral had been caught and hammered for wasting tax-payers'
money for having an enlisted man wash his car during a reserve drill...

Anyway, I think I know why I got the letter directing me to report for the
Navy psychiatric exam.  Captain ______ was hip to the fact that my wife was
playing psychiatric games - because I had TOLD him - see above - and see...

Judge Ellis MIGHT read a Fox funny
http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=627233786

Child abuse: the atom bomb of family law
http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=627398453

Re: Confessions
http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=633160255

ATTENTION Capt ____, I'm mentioning you here - hoping you'll
eventually see this - because - even though you must be pissed that I did
not go yachting and perform "man overboard" drills with you guys in the
Sacramento River Delta - I'm thinking that you have an obligation to join
your fellow attorney - Michael J. Schroeder, Esq. in helping me end fetal
skull squashing.  Mr. Schroeder, is the former Chairman of the California
Republican Party who sued me because I mentioned information about him (now
assumed to be false) - when discussing fetal skull squashing on chiro-list.
See the just cited URLs...

To those who think this "personal" info is irrelevant, you are quite wrong.

This personal info about a period of paralysis in my life is just as
relevant as any personal info surrounding, say, the paralysis of an infant
at delivery via MD-caused shoulder dystocia (see above).

In a sense, I've been birthed more than once now - once at the hands of
MDs - and a few times at the hands of JDs...

To my knowledge, the MDs didn't paralyze me.  But the JDs did paralyze me -
but only temporarily.

Had I not been paralyzed by that first juris doctor (JD) - i.e., my wife's
attorney...

Had I not been denied visitation with my children...

I would not have persevered to this day to apply those same law to help the
helpless.  It's ALL relevant -
and people have expressed gratitude that I finally (thanks to contingencies
created by Fox and Schroeder) began sharing my personal stuff publicly.

I mean NO one any harm.  I want MDs, JDs, DCs, PTs, RNs, the U.S. Navy and
the POPE to help me stop fetal skull squashing.

Squatting urinals on U.S. Navy ships would be cool too...

As noted above, it looks like STANDING urinals for women are already with
us...
http://www.restrooms.org/sanistand2.gif

My thanks, BTW, to Mats Bergstrom, MD, Ob Gyn, South Hospital, Stockholm for
calling attention to Nurse Decker's standing urinal for women page...

Dr. Bergstrom, will you post this to OB/GYN-List.

Geffrey Klein, MD is still censoring me.

Dr. Klein's censorship began soon after British obstetrician Malcolm

Dr. Griffiths was referring to the fact that, in 1997, when I came onto
OB-GYN-List to notify obstetricians of these facts, I had pointed out that
Dr. Griffiths had his biomechanics backwards. See...
http://forums.obgyn.net/forums/ob-gyn-l/OBGYNL.9707/0128.html
http://forums.obgyn.net/forums/ob-gyn-l/OBGYNL.9707/0153.html

Copied to various OB/GYN-Listers on the Gerald P. Rodriguez, M.D., FACOG's
Women voiding device thread...Ronald E. Ainsworth, MD - Richard Chudacoff,
MD - Doctor...@aol.com - Betsy Hyde CNM - Cheri Van Hoover, CNM - Jim
Connerth, MD -

Copied to Dynamic Chiropractic editor Donald M. Petersen, Jr. at
D...@DCMedia.com

Copied to The Honorable Roscoe G. Bartlett via
http://www.house.gov/htbin/wrep_const

Copied also to the following staff at the The Washington Times...

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Do men in squatting cultures generally squat or stand to urinate?

The question occurred to me when Art Fougner, MD posted the following to
OB/GYN-List...

US NEWS 8/21/00, p.  14: "Now sit, Ingvar, sit.  Young women in Sweden,
Germany, and Australia have a new cause: They want men to sit down while
urinating.  This demand goes partly from concerns about hygiene-avoiding
the splash factor-but as Jasper Gerard reports in the English Spectator,
"more crucially because a man standing up to urinate is deemed to be
triumphing in his masculinity,and by extension, degrading women." One
argument is that if women can't do it, then men shouldn't either.
Another is that standing upright while relieving oneself is "a nasty
male gesture," suggesting of male violence.  A feminist group at
Stockholm University is campaigning to ban all urinals from campus, and
one Swedish elementary school has already removed them.  In Australia,
an Internet survey shows that 17 percent of those polled think men ought
to sit, while 70 percent believe they should be allowed to stand.  Some
Swedish women are pressuring their men to take a stand, so to speak.
Yola, a 25-year-old Swedish trainee psychiatrist, says she dumps
boyfriends who insist on standing.  "What else can I do?" said her new
boyfriend, Ingvar, who sits.
http://forums.obgyn.net/ob-gyn-l/OBGYNL.0009/1104.html

At the very least, Ingvar should be able to squat to poop...

So should U.S. Navy sailors....

Squatting should be maintained into adulthood...

Women especially should be encouraged to maintain their innate squatting
ability into adulthood.

Squatting-type births (including side-lying, kneeling, hands-and-knees,
etc.) are much easier on babies - life-saving at times...

The U.S. Navy should stop fetal skull squashing on all U.S. Navy maternity
wards.  NOW.

The Pope should do the same in the hospitals he runs.